Bet Me

Chapter 2

The next day, I woke up earlier than normal so that I could get dressed nicely. It took me about 30 minutes, but I finally picked out a pair of light blue skinny jeans with a nice black v-neck. I put my hair into a quick bun, put my boots on, grabbed my keys, purse, and bookbag, and walked out of my house. I got into the car and began driving towards Beth's house. I parked in front of her house and called her. "Hey. I'm outside." I said when she answered. "Okay. I'll be out." After about 5 minutes, she finally came out of the house. 

"Did you eat breakfast yet?" she asked me when she got into the car. "Nope. I was going to stop by McDonalds." I answered her. "Good cause I'm hungry." I pulled off and drove to the McDonalds that is accross the street from our school. We went through the drive thru and got our food. I drove into the school and parked. We decided to stay in the car and eat before heading into the school. We ate then finally headed inside. We walked to our spot and waited for the rest of the group. 

"Hey Beth. Hey Elena." our friend Isabella and her boyfriend Kyle say as they approach us. "Hey." we say back. "Where's everyone else?" Bella asks. "I guess there running late." I answer. Before we could continue talking, the bell rang, announcing the start of the school day. "Well, I guess we'll see them at lunch then." Kyle says. "Yeah. Well, I guess we should get going." Beth says. "Okay. See ya'll later." Bella says. "Bye." I say as we started walking away.

We arrived to our class and entered. We took our seats and began to talk. "So, are you ready to start working with James?" Beth asks me. "I have no choice." I answer. "Are you nervous?" she asks. "Yeah. I bet my face is going to be red as a tomato." I say. Before she can reply, James pulled up a chair and sat down in front of me and Beth. 

"Hi partners." "Hi' Beth replys. "Hello." I answer. "So, I have some ideas of what we can do." he says as he begins to talk. "Okay. We're stuck with this project for the next 3 months so our project has to be something we're all interested in,' he begins, "as students in the medical academy, I would assume that..." "You shouldn't assume." Beth says, interrupting him. "What?" he says confused. "You shouldn't assume. Elena always says this to me when I say 'I assume'. Tell him what your teacher told ya'll about 'assuming'". Beth says, as she urges me to speak. 

When he shifted his eyes to me, I felt heat creep up my neck and settle into my face. "Um, well, my 7th grade english teacher said, 'you shouldn't assume anything because you will make and ass out of you and me.' " I say. "Wait, how?" he says, still confused. "When you spell assume, if you seperate the words, you'll see 'ass' 'u' and 'me', so when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me." I explained to him. He registered the information and began to laugh. "Thats good. Very clever." he says smiling. Seeing his smile makes more heat creep up to my face. 

Before he can continue explaining his idea, Ms.Summers came into the classroom and annouced that we'd be heading to the computer lab. We all got up, got our stuff, and headed out into the hallway. In the hallway, James walked with a group of his fellow basketball players, which gave me and Beth time to talk. "My face is burning. It feels like my head is in an oven." I say to Beth. "Elena, your face is so red. Aww, your blushing!" she says to me. "Shut up." I say back.

When we got to the computer lab, Beth and I quickly got to a computer and after a bit of disputing, I logged on. As we waited for the computer to load, James pulled up a chair and sat in behind us. "You guys just left me." he says to us. "Well, you were walking with your friends so we decided to be productive and find ourselfs a computer." Beth replied to him. "Oh so your saying I wasn't being productive?" he questioned her. "Well no, but when you put it like that...." Beth begin but I inturrepted her by saying "Anyways, what was your idea that you were talking about in the classroom?" This intrruption prompted a glare from Beth that lasted about 10 seconds before she noticed the blush creeping back onto my face. 

"Oh, well, I was going to say that since we're all in the medical academy, we could do our project on something that has to do with medicine. We could do something that involves cancer or down syndrome or something like that." he says. "I think I like where your going with this idea." I said to him. "Okay class, we will be coming to the computer lab for the rest of the week, but this friday is the last time you will work on this project in class. I know that about half the seniors in this class have cars so you guys can work on this project outside of school. If you can't, then we'll talk, but otherwise, exchange phone numbers or emails, but get this project done." Ms.Summers  announced before the bell rang, dismissing us for second period. 

"Wait, why is the bell so early?" I asked when the bell rang. "Today is on homeroom schedule." answered James. "Oh, I did not know that." Beth says. "Yeah, well, I guess we'll exchange numbers and what not tomorrow. Bye girls." James says walking away from me and Beth. "Bye." we said in unison. "We should prank call him when he gives us his number." Beth said, looking at me with a mischeavious grin. "How about no. We're stuck with him for the next three months so no prank calling him." I said to her. "Aww, why not? You know you want to!" She says. "No, we are going to be mature adults about this." "Oh come on. Just once?" she says, practically pleading. "Maybe. I'll think about it." I answered her with a sigh. "Yes!!" she excaimed.

~~~~~~~~~~

"My number is 819-454-8322. I stay afterschool for practice and games but basketball season is almost over so I can start staying afterschool to work on our project. Just let me know when and I'll be there." James explains to us, while writing down his number. "Okay. We'll, since Elena has her car now, we're going to start staying tuesday's and thursday's." Beth says, taking the paper from James. "Do you want us to write down our numbers?" I asked James. "Nah, just send me a text and I'll save your number." he answers. 

After exchanging numbers, we began to work on our project.  After working in silence for about an hour, James finally broke the silence. "So, I think we should take a break. Class is over in like 15 minutes." he says pointing to the clock. "15 minutes, we could get some more done." I say without thinking. "Oh come on Elena, I'm tired of working. Can't we just relax?" Beth says in a  whiny voice. "We need to work. I want to get this project done." I say in the same whiny voice. "Come on Elena, we'll get this project done. 15 minutes of relaxing won't hurt anyone." James says. "Um, okay. I guess we can stop working." I said, reluctantly. 

"Great! Now, are you guys going to the game tonight?" James says, starting a conversation. "Nah, we didn't plan too. Are you playing tonight?" Beth says. "Yeah. Have ya'll been to any of the games?" he asks. "No. We were going to go to the last game though. When's the last game?" I say. "It's on Feburary 10th. It's like 3 weeks from now." he answers. "Maybe we'll go." I say. 

"So, James, where do you want to go to college?" Beth asks. "Well, I've always wanted to go to Duke but i'm not really sure anymore. I guess which ever college puts me on a full athletic scholarship." he says. "Oh, so you're smart and athletic? Thats what colleges are looking for." she says. "Yeah, I guess. Where do you guys want to go?" he asks. "Well, I've been thinking about App. State but Chapel Hill is also an option." Beth answers. 

"What about you?" James says, turning his gaze to me. This sudden attention brings a new wave of heat to my face. "Um, well, I liked App. State, but I think i'll be attending Chapel Hill because I have cousins there." I answer. "Oh, so we're going to be rivals?" he jokes. "Yeah, I guess we are." I say smiling. We talk about college and grades for the next 15 minutes until dismissal. When the bell rings, we're all laughing and having a good time. We put our stuff away and all three of us walk out together. 

We get to the main hallway and James waves goodbye as he takes a left while Beth and I got right. "We're going to the basketball game." I say to Beth as soon as James is out of earshot. "Tonight?" she asks. "No, i'm talking about the last game." I remind her. Beth doesn't answer, she just smiles. She can tell why I want to go to the game.